Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed for leaving his post in Afghanistan.

Trump's comments on October 8 at a rowdy campaign rally came as an Army court denied Bergdahl's request for documents being used to determine whether he will be court-martialed for desertion and misbehavior during the nearly five years he was held prisoner by the Taliban.

Trump called Bergdahl a "no-good traitor" who would have been shot 30 years ago.

After being held by the Taliban from 2009 to 2014, Bergdahl was exchanged in a controversial deal for five Taliban commanders being held in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Trump has long railed against that deal.

Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said Trump "has become a broken record on this subject."